Enbridge to replace pipeline that caused 2010 oil spill into Kalamazoo River

Kalamazoo Gazette File PhotoJeremy Blackford of Clean Harbors uses a suction hose to clean oil from atop the Kalamazoo River in a containment area in Augusta in 2010. After the spill, crews attempted to clean up over 800,000 gallons of oil leaked into the Kalamazoo River.

MARSHALL, MI — Enbridge officials detailed plans Thursday to build a new oil pipeline through Kalamazoo County and other parts of Lower Michigan, replacing the old line that caused an environmental catastrophe when more than 800,000 gallons of oil leaked into the Kalamazoo River in July 2010.

Enbridge said the two-phrase project, which will entirely replace the company’s 6B pipeline that runs through lower Michigan and Indiana, is aimed at making the line more structurally sound and increase oil volume able to flow through the pipe.

Enbridge will begin replacing portions of the pipeline this July or August of this year, spokesman Joe Martucci said, and expects to have the project completed by the end of 2013. Written plans provided by the company claim new technology will be safer than the current structure, built in 1969, including securer coatings and computer-powered cameras to look inside the pipes for defects.

Martucci said although the upgrades are not directly related to the 2010 spill, new technologies will require fewer repairs.

“The reasons for them are either integrity driven, or integrity driven and capacity driven, but they’re not related to the Marshall spill,” Martucci said. “Those kind of advances have been made by the industry and we’re going to take advantage of those technologies.”

Mike Wetzel, environmental services superintendent for the city of Kalamazoo, said such renovations – which involve abandoning current pipeline and building a new structure parallel to it – could pose risk for local groundwater supplies if oil from another spill were to approach nearby wells. But he also agreed that new piping ultimately could keep natural resources safer.

“That’s where our immediate concern would be,” Wetzel said of the wells. “From an environmental standpoint, we wouldn’t want to see anything occur that happened before.”

Portions of the new pipeline in Southwest Michigan also will be about six inches wider, according to written plans, in order push larger volumes of oil through while still following pressure restrictions.

In the plan's written presentation, Enbridge touts the project as an economic boost, raising property values and creating more than 1,000 temporary and permanent jobs in the communities adjacent to the line.

Although one section of small section of the Kalamazoo River that had been closed following the Enbridge spill in 2010 reopened last month – just three of the 40 miles affected – environmental officials have said significant amounts of oil still remain submerged in the river bed, although they say it is not dangerous to human health. State and federal agencies are slated to open more parts of the river in coming months pending investigation.